Signs
by meggz0rz
Summary: Post-canon. Inuyasha is a father now, and little Riku seems just perfect at first. Then, almost by accident, Inuyasha realizes something is...different about his baby son. But Kagome, as always, is up for any challenges, and she'll show Inuyasha all over again just how much the love of a mother can move mountains. Deafness/Sign Language themed; Happy Inu Secret Santa, HanyoYokai!


**_Inuyasha Secret Santa 2019!_**

**_Prompt: InuKag ASL (American Sign Language)_**

**_Okay so I didn't feel comfortable portraying actual real-life sign language in this since my knowledge and understanding of and about ASL is super limited, and I was worried I wouldn't do it justice. However, my parents are both hearing-impaired. My dad went deaf around three years of age after a bad fever, and he speaks with a speech impediment as a result. My mom's hearing started to leave her in her mid-twenties due to a congenital defect (one that I have inherited, btw, so at some point I'll also need hearing aids like her and be unable to hear a thing without them in). _**

**_My family does not use ASL, as my dad learned to lip-read instead, and my mom went deaf too late in life for ASL to be any sort of help. That being said, I can write from a personal space for this one, even if I had to tweak it just a bit!_**

* * *

**SIGNS**

* * *

Inuyasha had been completely terrified about the prospect of fatherhood.

He'd kept a brave face on for Kagome's sake, of course, as her belly swelled and grew over those months, never letting on just how much the little one's impending arrival was keeping him from a single night of decent sleep.

Would he even know how to be a father, when he'd never even met his own?

Would Kagome be able to withstand the pain of childbirth, and would she curse his, Inuyasha's name forevermore once the first contraction hit?

Would the kid be...would he or she be...alright?

But then Riku was finally born, and he was cheerful, healthy, and full of life, sporting the same white hair and doglike ears as his father and the same soulful blue eyes as his mother.

And as he held his son in his arms for the first time, Inuyasha told himself that all his fears to that point had been silly and overwrought. He forced himself to relax.

Until Riku was six months old, and Inuyasha made an accidental, heartbreaking discovery.

* * *

"Still sleeping, huh?" Inuyasha tossed his sweat-soaked shirt over one shoulder as he strode up to the door of their hut, where Kagome stood waiting with the baby in her arms.

Kagome grinned and leaned up to greet him with a gentle kiss. "Like a rock. Once he's out, he's _out._"

"Like his mom," Inuyasha said with a sly grin, slipping a hand around her waist and pulling her a bit closer.

Kagome laughed gleefully, then cast a nervous glance down at Riku and seemed to silently admonish herself. "Hey, jerk," she said in a whisper, reaching with her free hand to tug at a lock of Inuyasha's hair playfully, "It's not my fault you can hear _everything_ with those doggy ears of yours!"

She turned and went into the hut first. Inuyasha just watched her as he had so often since their son's birth - watched her sigh with contentment as she looked down at the baby in her arms, pure love emanating from every part of her.

And then Inuyasha's eyes fell on Riku's ears...fuzzy, white, set atop the crown of his head, and suddenly, all that fear returned, all at once.

"_It's not my fault you can hear everything with those doggy ears of yours!"_

* * *

He suspected, but he was afraid of finding out for sure.

Afraid of telling Kagome the truth about their tiny white-haired, blue-eyed son.

Afraid of breaking her heart, and his own in the process.

So he tried to ignore it, that nagging terror, that trepidation, that _dread_, until he couldn't anymore.

Miroku and Sango's twins forced his hand when they decided one fine morning to light Shippo's tail on fire.

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Kagome and Inuyasha sat outside the tent, mouths full with a simple breakfast. They both jumped, startled at the sudden noise, and sent each other a nervous glance.

Inuyasha winced at the pitch and volume of the agonized scream, which from the sound of things, was speeding their way. Folding his oh-so-sensitive ears down a bit to muffle the ringing, he sprang into action, leaping to his feet and standing protectively in front of Kagome, who curled her small body around the baby in her arms and stood ready to defend if she was needed as well.

"What the hell was _that?_" Sango's head poked through the straw doorway of the hut just opposite their own. She had her toddler son on her hip, and he was screaming as well, holding his small, chubby hands over his ears.

Kagome's worried expression turned to confusion as a trail of smoke and flame appeared over the hilltop, running this way and that in an obvious panic. "Is that...is that Shippo?"

Inuyasha growled and caught the kitsune by the back of his clothes as Shippo tried to careen right past.

"INUYASHA! HELP ME! THEY - THE TWINS - I'M DYING, I'M ON FIIIIIRE - "

With a swift motion Inuyasha dunked Shippo straight into the nearby rainwater barrel, and there was a hiss of steam and an eruption of bubbles and muffled shouting from beneath the water's surface.

Between Shippo's shrieking and the pained wail of Miroku and Sango's youngest, Inuyasha decided that was about all the shrill noise he could take, and as he held Shippo there underwater, the grumpier side of him suggested, only momentarily of course, that all the noise would stop if Inuyasha could just...hold Shippo there...for another minute and a half...

But no, Kagome would probably yell at him, wouldn't she? So the noise wouldn't _stop,_ it would just...swap around.

He lifted Shippo back out of the barrel and flung him roughly to the ground, where Shippo tumbled in a coughing, spluttering heap.

"Shippo," Sango called, still trying and failing to soothe her startled boy, "Are you alright? What about the twins, did _they_ do this to you?"

Shippo could only look pathetic and nod.

Sango's pretty face contorted with anger, and she immediately stood up taller and called over her shoulder into the hut behind her. "MIROKU!"

Inuyasha folded his ears back over his head again, and as a bewildered-looking MIroku and a _very _sullen-looking Shippo were both practically kicked along down the path by Sango in search of those wayward delinquent kids of theirs, he muttered something rather nasty under his breath.

"Inuyasha! Watch your mouth, there's a baby present!" Kagome giggled beside him.

As if the world had completely slowed to a crawl, Inuyasha's ears returned to their upright state. It felt almost dreamlike, unreal, as he turned to stare at Kagome, at _Riku,_ there in her arms, wrapped in a blanket…

_Sleeping soundly._

The air left Inuyasha's lungs in a horrific groan, and as if his brain wouldn't let him accept it without one last little shred of proof positive, he just _had_ to take a last glance at Sango and Miroku's retreating backs…at their young son, who was still slung over his mother's hip, sniffling and blubbering and holding his fists up to his ears.

_His _human _ears._

Miroku's boy had reacted so strongly to Shippo's caterwauling, but Riku..._Riku...no…_

_Riku's ears should be more sensitive than a human's, but they're not, they're NOT, WHY, he didn't even WAKE UP, didn't react AT ALL - _

"Thank goodness this little guy doesn't scare so easily, huh?" Kagome leaned down to press a soft kiss to Riku's forehead, and the baby finally stirred and cooed in response to her touch.

Inuyasha just stood there, hands hanging useless at his sides. All he could do was stare, horrified, at his wife holding the son they both adored more than life itself.

He wasn't sure if it was the earth-shattering gravity of the moment making him take more notice than usual, or if he really was seeing it, but Kagome, to him, had never seemed more beautiful, more happy, more optimistic, as she gave Riku another kiss to the cheek and then turned to smile again at Inuyasha.

"Kagome," was all he could say, and then his mouth snapped shut again as he stared down at his feet in the dirt.

How could he even begin? What words could he possibly say, and in what order, to keep her from crying?

"Inuyasha?"

He glanced back up, and Kagome's elated smile had faded into a look of mild confusion, maybe the beginnings of concern. "Are you alright?"

That might have been the last of Kagome's easy, carefree smiles. The very last of them, and Inuyasha had stupidly looked away without savoring it, memorizing it. She might never smile so freely ever again, and she still had no idea…

"Inuyasha?" she asked again, and all he could think to do was launch himself forward and fold her and Riku both into his arms, digging his chin into her shoulder and placing a protective hand behind the baby's head.

"Kagome," Inuyasha whispered, and he realized as he did so that his voice was trembling, "I don't think Riku can hear."

He felt her stiffen in his embrace. "Hear what?" Her tone was so casual, so benignly curious, and he hated himself that his next words would no doubt change everything forever.

"Kagome, I don't think he can hear..._anything._"

* * *

Sitting there on their bedroll as he explained what he'd observed as best he could, Kagome seemed to take the news with calm dignity, her large blue eyes filling with tears as she kept glancing back and forth between Inuyasha and the baby cradled in her arms.

When Inuyasha asked her, as gently as he possibly could, if she understood what he was telling her, she just gave a mute nod and mumbled something about needing to change the kid's diaper before excusing herself from the room.

Inuyasha knew she didn't want him to follow, so he remained there, sitting on their bedroll, and just watched.

She kept her demeanor as sweet and as kindly as ever, letting nothing slip when Miroku and Sango returned down the path a few minutes later, the freshly-scolded twins bodily restrained over both MIroku's shoulders. She just smiled and waved through the doorway, holding Riku's little legs in place as she cleaned him up from his soiled diaper.

"There you go, my little love," she said as she pinned the new diaper cloth in place and placed a kiss to Riku's belly, just as she always did…

And then she stopped, and the subdued smile vanished again as she stared down at the baby. "He really can't hear me," she murmured, and her eyes were locked with Inuyasha's now and there was a fresh round of tears gathering in her thick black lashes. "Can he?"

Inuyasha didn't answer; he knew she didn't need or want him to. All he could do was stare heartbrokenly at his wife as he watched the overdue panic take hold of her.

"Riku!" Kagome cried, leaning forward on her knees and bracing herself over his small form.

Riku didn't move or respond to her voice; he was busy trying to work a single chubby foot into his mouth.

"RIKU!" Kagome waved her hands in a wild frenzy, and the name from her lips was a shout this time.

Riku's eyes seemed to catch his mother's frantic hand movements, and he paused his efforts and looked up into her face. He clearly had no notion of the fear, the panic around him, because he gave a gurgling squeal of delight and reached up for Kagome with two round fists.

Kagome sat back on her heels for a moment and gave one harsh sob into the crook of her elbow, then seemed to steel herself for one last try, all as Inuyasha could only sit there like an idiot with no idea what to do or how to help her…

She clapped her hands then, slowly and softly at first, then ramping it up gradually, until she was slapping her palms together with deafening cracks that made her wince in pain each time. "Riku," she whimpered, then shouted. "RIKU! Please, look at Mama, _RIKU, LOOK AT MAMA, PLEASE!_"

Inuyasha wanted to stop her, of _course_ he did, she was hurting herself and she was confused and upset, but no intervention would make this any easier, would it?

When she had finally exhausted herself, Kagome sat back again, looking helplessly up at the ceiling, as if maybe the answers to all their millions of questions might be written up there in plain black ink.

"He can't hear me," she said finally, her voice cracking enough to hint that she'd probably strained it just now, as she turned back again to look at Inuyasha. Her eyes were swollen, and it seemed as if the normally crystalline shade of blue in her irises had dulled to a charcoal gray in the dim light of their home. "He can't hear me at all, Inuyasha. Our baby _can't hear my voice._"

Kagome scooped up Riku then and held him so tightly that he began to squirm, and she crumpled into breathless sobs, and Inuyasha was up and at her side then and there and was holding them _both_, his wife and his baby son, cradling them in his arms and letting the tears flow.

* * *

**FOUR YEARS LATER**

* * *

"Yes, and these are...shiitakes, that's right, that's my smart, smart boy!"

Inuyasha rounded the corner toward the sound of that familiar voice, his body tired and aching from the long day's work, and he raised his hand in a wave as soon as he caught Kagome's eye.

She was sitting there in her priestess garb, with Riku on her lap and a handful of herbs and grass spread out on the ground in front of them. Riku held a mushroom in his hand and was excitedly signing out observations about it, blissfully unaware that Kagome's attention had been diverted.

But then Kagome gave that soft, knowing smile, the one Inuyasha had once feared he'd never see again. She placed her left hand on Riku's shoulder to direct the kid's gaze to her right hand, with which she signed…

**Papa.**

Riku's excited, wordless cry of delight at the word was flattering enough for Inuyasha. But when Kagome guided their son's line of sight with her pointed finger, and Riku saw him and scrambled off her lap to take off toward him at the full level of speed a quarter-youkai child could muster, Inuyasha felt a pounding in his chest and that renewed sense of wonder that he and Kagome had made such an amazing kid together.

Riku collided with Inuyasha's midsection, and he must have felt his father's soft grunt because he looked up with a grin and mimicked the sound.

"Hiya, runt." Inuyasha was careful to keep his moving lips entirely visible to the little boy as he leaned down to ruffle Riku's fluffy white hair before scooping him into the crook of his arm and walking onward toward the hut.

**Were you good for Mama today?** Inuyasha spoke the words aloud as he signed, so Riku could better match his father's subpar signing skills with the lip movements.

Riku nodded in response and signed something Inuyasha didn't recognize. Luckily, they were at the front door, so Inuyasha could give a quick glance to his gorgeous wife for help.

"'Shiitake,' he's saying," Kagome said with a proud smile, arms folded over her chest. **We learned some of Mama's medicinal herbs today, didn't we?** She, too, spoke slowly and clearly along with the words she signed out.

**Shii...take?** Inuyasha tried it, and Riku let out a boisterous guffaw of a laugh, and _oh, sometimes more than anything I wish this kid could hear his own laugh because it's_ amazing…

Kagome laughed too, and reached up to correct Inuyasha's finger-positioning. "Like this, dear," she said, "It's another new one I'll have to write down for us."

Inuyasha showed the amended hand signal to Riku, who nodded and gave him a hearty clap on the back as if to congratulate him for a job well done. "It's amazing how quickly you two can make these up."

It had been Kagome's resolve from the first day they'd known about Riku's impairment - she was going to get him talking, one way or another.

When Inuyasha had (stupidly) expressed his doubts about such an idea, Kagome had turned on her heel and sharply ground him into powder with some very choice words of her own.

Riku was different, yes, and he would have to work twice as hard as, say, Miroku and Sango's kids, just to be able to navigate himself through a world where other people all could hear noises that taught them things, noises that helped them scan their surroundings, noises that warned them of possible danger.

But, Kagome had said, Riku was up to the challenge. He had his father's instincts and physical ability, and his mother's natural intuition and empathy.

She was going to make sure he could communicate in a world where he'd never hear a word spoken.

Inuyasha couldn't remember if the idea of a gestured language, given and interpreted entirely in hand signals, had come up that first night, but the next memory he had after that was Kagome's utter _delight_ when Riku repeated the sign she'd invented for 'milk' and then showed he understood by immediately trying to headbutt her in the chest.

There were new signs every day, it seemed, and Inuyasha struggled to keep up. Riku soaked every new word up like a sea sponge, and so, amazingly, did Kagome.

Inuyasha had asked her once how she managed to remember that the difference between the sign for 'sword' and the sign for 'Auntie Sango's hiraikotsu' was determined merely by the placement of one's pinky finger in the formation.

Kagome had just given him a bewildered smile and rolled her eyes. "It's how I talk to my son," she'd said simply.

**Papa. Papa. PAPA.** Riku, ever the climber, had managed to balance his two small feet on his father's shoulders, and now he leaned bodily over the crown of Inuyasha's head, his hands forming exact, practiced signs just inches from Inuyasha's nose.

Inuyasha smirked at Kagome, then nodded once to indicate to Riku that he was listening. _Miroku and Sango complain all the time about the talkative years when the kids won't shut the hell up, _he thought, _Guess our talkative years are just beginning, huh?_

**Papa, dinner!**

**Is...that...all I am...to you?** Inuyasha feigned disappointment, but could only manage it for a second.

**It's all you are to ME!** Kagome cut in, and broke into a laugh at the outraged look Inuyasha sent her. She sent a mischievous look toward the top of Inuyasha's head and winked, and Inuyasha realized, not for the first time, that he was outnumbered in this household and he really, really needed to put another baby inside this woman as soon as possible. To at least thin out the numbers a _bit. _And also for the increased amount of sex.

Alright, mostly the sex.

If Kagome was aware of the slightly lascivious nature of Inuyasha's thoughts as he stared at her, she didn't let on at all as she reached up to collect Riku from up around his shoulders.

**Riku, tell Papa you love him.** She perched their son on her hip and gave him another conspiratorial wink.

**I love Papa! And dinner!**

**Me too,** Kagome said, **because Papa gets home and we eat dinner, right?**

**Wow, thank you so much.** Inuyasha kept his face as sullen as possible.

* * *

Inuyasha lay awake in bed that night, but not because of fear.

His beautiful wife, the girl who'd crossed through time to change his life forever in thousands upon thousands of ways, had given in to the lull of sleep just minutes after they'd finished making love, and she remained there, naked and close, in his arms.

His beautiful son, who was smart and tough and funny and perfect in every way, was asleep in the next room.

_Maybe tomorrow I'll take the kid into the village with me, _Inuyasha thought offhandedly. There was an old man just down the hill who, Inuyasha knew, had a few old taiko drums lying around, and the vibrations from the sound alone would be enough to send Riku into a fit of pure delighted abandon. The kid would probably insist on bringing home a taiko drum of their very own, and Inuyasha was already rehearsing the signs in his head for the ensuing debate.

**No, Mama will kill Papa if we bring a drum into the house...Yes, I **_**know**_ **you want one...You'll have to leave that here, Riku...**_**No, **_**put it **_**down,**_ **son...Remember when we taught you about 'loud?'...Yes. Yes, good, yes, 'loud.' Riku, drums are 'loud.' Drums hurt Mama's and Papa's ears...But not yours, that's right. Your ears are special, kid. You can bang on the drum as loud as you want, and it will never hurt you.**

And wasn't there some small beauty in that fact?

Kagome gave a small murmur and stirred in her sleep, pressing her cheek into his bare shoulder with a dreamy smile, as if she could hear her husband's thoughts and was adding her own agreement.

All Inuyasha could think, all he could _say,_ was "I love you. So much."

She was far too asleep to respond properly, but Inuyasha could settle for whatever "Mmmkayyoutoommmwah" was supposed to mean.

Yes, he thought, turning back to stare up at the ceiling of their bedroom, they would have another child, sooner rather than later.

And that child, hearing or not, would grow up learning the same signs as the rest of the family, would be able to communicate with his or her older brother easily, perhaps far more easily than Inuyasha or even Kagome could.

And their children would grow up as strong as their father and as kind as their mother, and they would protect each other and care for each other with what promised to be very aggressive, affectionate ferocity.

Inuyasha had been so afraid of becoming a father, of what it meant, how it would go, how he would measure up. And then he'd been so afraid of his own son, afraid for his welfare, for his purported quality of life in a world that could be harsh and dangerous.

But now?

The only thing that gave him any pause was the nagging thought that he should really stop showing so much sarcasm around his son, Riku's powers of observation and mimicry being what they were. It was going to become a disaster situation once the kid turned thirteen or so.

_Imagine getting cursed out in sign language._

* * *

**THE END**

* * *

**_Please let me know what you guys think! This was my Secret Santa gift for hanyoyokai, and it was a very fun break getting to write something a little less horrific and a little more heartwarming. ;)_**

**_See y'all soon with another Oblivion chapter, I promise! - meggz0rz_**


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